THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Drawn by Newman Bumstead
LAKES AND PEAKS DOT THE SALZKAMMERGUT
Festival-loving Salzburg, chief city of this Austrian playground, is
about 150 miles west of Vienna and close to the German frontier.
Emperor Franz Josef was long a leading summer resident of Bad Ischl.
The Salzkammergut is a paradise of
mountains and lakes-mountains that are
not inaccessible to the average climber and
lakes that are not only delightful for sailing
but warm enough for bathing. This refuge
from the cares of the world is more and
more attracting those who would escape
a too.rapid pace and do as they please for a
while.
Here in the Salzkammergut you will find
Jeritza and Lotte Lehmann, fresh from
their winter triumphs. Here in summer
come many of the great conductors, such
as Toscanini, Bruno Walter, Eugene Or
mandy, and Rodzinski.
Here come young composers, seeking a
haven after the adulation of the capitals
of Europe. Here are the Duncan dancers,
and many writers, painters, lecturers. And
here are a large number of average Amer
ican citizens like myself, to say nothing of
thousands of Germans who are not deterred
by the magnificent posters in their railway
stations begging them to see their own
country first.
One thing did deter them while it lasted.
It was the fine of one thousand marks
($250 at the time) imposed by the German
Government upon every
German citizen crossing
the Austrian border. How
that punished the Salz
kammergut! I can still
see, only too well, the de
serted beaches, the empty
inns, the shut-up cottages,
the long faces of the na
tives, in 1933, as they
waited all summer for the
trade that did not come.
Standing beside the lake
at Mondsee that first
morning, I was reminded
of Lake Louise in the
Canadian Rockies. The
water was the same jade
green. In the middle dis
tance glistened the snowy
fields of the Dachstein,
distinctly suggestive of
the Victoria Glacier, in
British Columbia. When I
looked at the swiftly rising
hills that ran back from
the eastern shore like a
well-brushed pompadour,
I thought of St. Moritz.
As we turned into the
broad, cool avenue called the Lindenallee,
we found it alive with people-week-end
guests, summer residents, youngsters on
their way to the mountains. For it was
Sunday, and, as the German says, "Sonn
tag ist der Lieblingstag" (Sunday is the
favorite day). Hordes of people were pass
ing through to other places, on foot, on
bicycles, in cars.
My companion was telling me the history
of the region.
"This, you know, is very old country.
See that huge bowlder over there? It was
left right in that place and position during
the last glacial period."
I was more impressed, however, by the
smaller stones, certainly not left by a gla
cier, which were piercing my Philadelphia
made shoes.
SALZKAMMERGUT MEANS "SALT CROWN
LAND"
"The Romans knew this country well,"
he went on, "and worked the ancient salt
mines that give the Salzkammergut its
name; the literal translation is 'Salt Crown
Land.'
There are many traces of the
Roman occupation.
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